Well, it's a very good point. When I have met with them their stories are similar in many ways. They start thinking about this prior to the 15 years. Then they're waiting. They don't know exactly when or even if the application is being made. Some of them have told me stories that in their heart of hearts they knew the guy wasn't going to get out anyway, but he made the application, in their opinion, to increase the pain these people feel. It's hard to believe that there would be individuals like that, but I have to accept what they tell me, and that is that some of these individuals put forward the application with no reasonable hope of having the matter successfully heard. This victimization happens again and again, and it continues on all the way through the process.
Even the ones I spoke with and said this is not retroactive, in the sense that we are not getting rid of the faint hope clause for the individual who has caused you this pain.... I have been impressed by the individuals—Sharon Rosenfeldt is a good example—who have come forward and said they want to make it a little easier, if they can, for people in the future.
As I said to Mr. Comartin, you can never eliminate the pain for what some of these individuals inflict on law-abiding, innocent Canadians. You can't get rid of that, but to the extent we can minimize that, I was impressed by people like her who would be prepared to make it better for people in the future. It's very impressive. And again, this is what this bill will accomplish.